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Monticello-Stratford
Hall Summer Seminar
for Teachers
Leadership and Life in Revolutionary America
June 22 - July 11, 2008
Designed exclusively for teachers, this three-week, six-credit seminar has an interdisciplinary flavor and a distinctive historical approach. It focuses on Virginia's political leadership and cultural life in the era of the American Revolution. You will gain an understanding of the unique events and dynamics that prevailed in mid-to-late 18th-century Virginia and will be given the tools to incorporate this newfound knowledge directly into your classrooms in order to enrich your students' educational experiences.
- A unique professional development opportunity
- A once-in-a-lifetime personal experience
- Historic Virginia as your classroom
- Stay at historic properties
- Special behind-the-scenes visits
- Hands-on educational experiences
Reading assignments will be completed before the seminar convenes, and an independent-study project is due several weeks after the students return home.
Seminar History . . . Instruction . . . Setting . . . Faculty and Staff . . . Participants . . . Student Comments from Past Programs . . . Academic Credit . . . Expenses . . . Scholarship Opportunity . . . Additional Information . . . Application Form
History
Since its establishment by the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association in 1981 at Stratford Hall Plantation, the seminar has received inquiries from teachers in fifty states and twenty-eight foreign countries, and its participants have come from every state and nine foreign countries. In 1985 the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello) and the University of Virginia, School of Continuing and Professional Studies, joined the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association as co-sponsors of the program.
Instruction
Classroom sessions will be held in the Jessie Ball du Pont Memorial Library at Stratford, in the Rotunda at the University of Virginia—which was designed by Thomas Jefferson as the architectural and academic heart of his community of scholars—and on the Monticello grounds. The seminar faculty consists of the professional staffs at Monticello and Stratford and more than two dozen guest lecturers and content specialists.
On-site instruction is an extremely important part of theprogram. You will study:
- Architecture by hands-on examination of historic structures and landscapes;
- Agriculture by working on a farm for a day with colonial tools and methods;
- Archaeology at the Jamestown Settlement, Stratford, and Monticello;
- Urban life by visiting Colonial Williamsburg;
- Slavery at Monticello's Mulberry Row and at Stratford's "Quarters'';
- Commercial activity at Stratford's eighteenth-century mill and wharf area;
- George Washington at Mount Vernon and his birthplace at Pope's Creek;
- James Madison at Montpelier;
- George Mason at Gunston Hall;
- James Monroe at Ash Lawn-Highland;
- Thomas Jefferson at Monticello and the University of Virginia.
Setting
Students will spend most of their time at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello near Charlottesville and at the Lee ancestral home, Stratford, birthplace of General Robert E. Lee and the boyhood home of the only brothers to sign the Declaration of Independence (Francis Lightfoot and Richard Henry Lee). Both sites are as scenic as they are historical.
Monticello features many ongoing archaeological and restoration projects and a large exhibit area. While at Monticello, you will have the opportunity to attend the annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony.
Stratford, a preservation landmark, continues to operate as a working plantation of over 1,800 acres along the high bluffs ofthe Virginia shore of the Potomac.
Additional time will be spent at the University of Virginia, Colonial Williamsburg, the Jamestown Settlement, and manyother historic properties that are scattered about Virginia cities and countryside.
Faculty and Staff
The seminar faculty consists of the professional staffs at Monticello and Stratford Hall and of nearly two dozen guest lecturers and content specialists.
Program Directors
Mary Scott-Fleming
Director of Adult Education
Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies
Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Monticello
Kenneth M. McFarland, M.A.
Director of Education
Robert E. Lee Association, Inc.
Stratford
Associate Program Director
Philip Bigler
Director, James Madison Center
James Madison University
(540) 568-2549
University of Virginia
Jennifer Oppenheimer
Director of Field Schools and Enrichment Programs
School of Continuing & Professional Studies
Participants
The seminar will be limited to thirty elementary and secondary history and social studies teachers who are employed full-time in the classroom. Applications will be accepted from throughout the United States and from Department of Defense Dependent Schools abroad, and will be screened on a competitive basis.
Academic Credit
Upon successful completion of the seminar, six semester hours of graduate credit in history will be awarded by the Universityof Virginia. Successful students will have been active participants throughout the program, will have completed all readingassignments, and will have submitted their independent stud yproject by the designated due date after the program ends. This project will consist of creating a teaching unit for a course that may be taught during the academic year.
Expenses
Successful applicants will be supplied room, board, books, andcourse materials. At Stratford, housing will be furnished near the "Great House'' with meals in the scenic plantation diningroom nearby. For the Monticello phase, lodging will be "on the Lawn" at the University of Virginia in the original Jefferson-designed student rooms, a special U.Va. tradition. Meals will be taken at the University dining halls, as well as special picnics and cook-outs. Two nights will also be spent at a hotel in Colonial Williamsburg. You will be responsible for some of your own meals during the three full-day field trips.
Teachers will be responsible for some of their own meals during the three full-day field trips. In addition, teachers may want to take advantage of free time to visit Civil War battlefields or other nearby sites.
The only other cost to the teacher will be $650, which is less than half the projected tuition for six semester hours of graduate credit from the University of Virginia.
Selection
The selection of participants will be made by a committee according to the following criteria:
- Evidence of the applicant's demonstrated success as a teacher.
- Evidence that the seminar will relate to the teaching skills and needs of the applicant.
- Evidence of a well-rounded personality and the ability to work with other people.
- Evidence of a commitment to — and capabilities for — the concentrated study of the seminar program.
Completed applications must be received by March 1, 2008, and all applicants will be informed of their status during the first week in April.
Scholarship Opportunity:
Since 1995, the Foundation has awarded a limited number of scholarships each year to Summer Seminar participants. Recipients of these scholarships are notified separately after being admitted to the seminar. The endowed Lakeland Summer Seminar Scholarship Fund, which underwrites the scholarships, was established by Lakeland Tours of Charlottesville, Virginia, which is now a part of WorldStrides.
Student Comments from Past Programs
"Top notch, the best thing I've ever been involved with. I would recommend this to anyone."
"Keep up the great job. This was a fantastic course and I thank you for allowing me to be a part of it."
"This was one ofthe highlights of my educational career...My teaching will be improved because of it."
"[What I liked best about the course was] Going behind the ropes so often—having opportunities that others do not."
"A priceless opportunity that will enrich my teaching and myself."
"The one most motivational, educational, supportive experience I've ever had."
"I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in becoming a better teacher of American history."
"The lectures were great—they provided informationthat you just couldn't get anywhere else."
"This has been the best course I have taken in over 200 credits. It is an unbelievable experience."
For Additional Information:
Please Contact: Kenneth M. McFarland, M.A.
Director of Education
Robert E. Lee Association, Inc.
Jesse Ball duPont Memorial Library
Stratford Hall Plantation
Stratford, VA 22558
shpedu@stratfordhall.org
(804) 493-8038 ext. 1558 FAX (804) 493-8006
http://www.stratfordhall.org